Global Health Essay Competition
Oxford Global Health Group (OGHG) is pleased to announce its first ever essay competition in association
with the William Dunn School of Pathology! We’re giving sixth form students the opportunity to have their
work read by leading experts, win a cash prize, and be featured in a leading medical student publication...
How to Enter
To take part in the competition, you need to write a 1,250 word essay in response to the following question:
“What lessons have we learnt from the past century that should shape the solutions to global health
challenges we face today?”
Email us your word-processed essay to [email protected] by 5.00pm on Friday 20th March
2015. Any entries we receive after this sadly won’t be judged. In your email, make sure you include the
following details so we can get in touch if we need to: name, date of birth, current school or college, home
address, and a contact telephone number. We promise that no one will be allowed to see this information
apart from members of the OGHG committee and our judging panel. You will receive email confirmation
within 7 days of submitting your essay. If you don’t receive a confirmation email from us, please do get in
touch just to check we’ve got your entry! When formatting your work, use Times New Roman (font size 12)
and reference any factual information in the Vancouver style. If you’re unsure about how to reference things,
drop us an email, ask a teacher, or search online - there are lots of really helpful websites that will show how
to reference properly.
Prizes
The winning entry will receive £100 to commend their achievement, second place will receive £50, and third
place £25. In addition to these personal prizes, the top three entrants will be awarded the same amount
again to donate to a global health charity of their choice. The winning entry will also be read by the editor of
Student BMJ, who will decide to either publish the essay or feature the winner in the ‘letters’ section to
publicize their success. If not printed by sBMJ, we will support the winner in getting their work published by
the online Global Health magazine ‘Café Communiqué’, along with the second and third place entries.
The Judging Panel
A preliminary round of judging will be carried out by members of the OGHG committee, who are current
medical students at the University of Oxford. Shortlisted entries will then be read by our top judging panel:
Dr. Richard Smith
Former editor of BMJ. Chair
of the board of Patients
Know Best and trustee of C3
Collaborating for Health.
Professor Dame Anne Johnson
Chair of the Grand Challenge for
Global Health at UCL and
Professor of Infectious Disease
Epidemiology
Professor Anthony Costello
Director of the UCL Institute
for Global Health and
Professor of International Child
Health
Professor Christoph Tang
Principal Investigator at the William
Dunn School of Pathology and
examiner at University of Oxford
Medical School
What Makes a Winning Entry?
There is no right or wrong answer to the essay question, so don’t be put off if your initial reaction is “I don’t
know!”. What we want to see is how well you can use information and evidence to put forward an argument.
Things that will make a winning essay include original thinking, interesting ideas, and a good structure.
Where possible, we will aim to give feedback on your work, and shortlisted entries will receive a letter of
commendation in recognition of their achievement.
FAQS
1. Who is eligible to enter?
This competition is open to all sixth form students (years 12 and 13) regardless of where you’re studying or
what subjects you take.
2. Why should I enter?
There are lots of reason why taking part in competitions like this are a great thing to do. Firstly, showing an
interest in the wider curriculum looks brilliant on any university application, so this is a chance for you to
boost your CV and stand out from the crowd. Secondly, if you choose to continue your studies are university,
this will give you a head start in learning how to produce high quality, academic work. And don’t forget the
prizes on offer: not only is there money to be won, but you could be published and earn even more CV
points!
3. Can I post my essay to you?
Unfortunately we cannot accept entries via post. Because we might need to share your work amongst the
judging panel, it’s important that we have an electronic copy.
4. When will I find out if I’ve won or not?
We can’t say exactly how long the judging process will take, but we aim to let everyone know the outcome by
the end of April 2015.
Contact Us
If you have any other questions then don’t hesitate to get in touch at [email protected].